by Shane Fleming
CENTRAL MURRAY FOOTBALL NETBALL LEAGUE – ROUND 11 FOOTBALL PREVIEW
Tomorrow is Umpire’s Appreciation round in both the Central Murray and Golden Rivers Football Netball League’s. Just remember, without umpires, there is no game!
BALRANALD v LAKE BOGA
Balranald will be looking to keep their finals hopes alive when they host Lake Boga at Greenham Park tomorrow afternoon.
The Roo’s currently find themselves two wins outside the top five, but with winnable games to come over the next month of football could yet make a run at a finals berth; provided they get the four points against the Magpies.
Boga on the other hand is still yet to register a win in season 2021, but have been steadily improving as the season’s progressed and players have returned from injury.
In a further boost to the Pies’ fortunes, they will likely regain Kyle Brawn and Wes Harrison, both of whom missed last weekend’s 49-point loss to NNW United.
Both Harrison and Brawn will be welcome additions to the Lake Boga on-ball brigade, alongside Matt Filo, Cameron Johnson and Rhys Healey.
The midfield battle promises to be one of the deciding factors in this game, with both teams relying heavily on their key prime movers.
While Filo has been the recruit of the season for Boga, Cam Barrett’s return to the Balranald line-up has been equally important to his club’s fortunes.
With Ben Fuller no better than a 50-50 proposition to takes his place tomorrow, Ben Mahon may have to find other avenues to goal in order for his team to kick a winning score.
Drew Lloyd will be one who will be called upon, as could midfielder Colin Andrews, who has played in a permanent forward role before and would prove to be a challenging match-up for any defender.
Lake Boga’s inability to score has been their Achilles heel, with the Magpies averaging just over 50 points a game so far this season.
Angus Monfries is heavily relied upon to do the bulk of their scoring; and with Tom Burnside likely to go to him, the visitors may also need others to stand up.
Jayden Lonergan is a proven goalkicker and could potentially be that secondary target, with Leyland ‘The Fossil’ Brougham likely to get the task of quelling his influence.
With their season at stake and on their home patch, expect Balranald to get the job done; and keep Boga’s winless start to the season going for another week at least.
Tip – Balranald by 22 points.
COHUNA KANGAS v SWAN HILL
The Cohuna Kangas will go into tomorrow’s game as red-hot favorites when they host a Swan Hill side that will be desperate to stay within touching distance of the top three; and keep alive their hopes of earning the double chance come September.
The Kangas great strength is undoubtedly their midfield, however that strength will be somewhat depleted with the suspension of Joel Helman following the Kangas win against Balranald last weekend.
Even with Helman’s absence, the home side still have plenty of offensive weapons in the middle.
Tom Toma, Jackson Williams and Tyson Findlay are all first-rate onballers and their influence will need to be reduced if Swan Hill are to have any chance of victory.
The Swans will also need to find a way to stop the leagues number one attack, with the Kangas averaging an astonishing 132 points per game.
And that forward line is only set to get stronger on the weekend with the likely return of Daniel Coates from a shoulder injury.
But the key for Swan Hill’s hopes will be to win their own footy around the stoppages and get the ball into their attacking half of the ground.
It will be absolutely vital that Matt Wade, Luke Phelan, Oscar Lewis and Leighton Dullard win the contested ball and not allow the Kangas to easily transition the footy from inside to outside where they can move the ball quickly and become extremely dangerous, especially on the wide-open spaces of the Cohuna Rec. Reserve.
The big question is exactly how are the visitors going to kick a score big enough to defeat Cohuna?
It would be reasonable to assume the Swans will need to score at least 15 goals to be any chance of causing an upset; and that’s hard to see happening against a team in as good a form as the Kangas.
Tip – Cohuna by 36 points.
TOOLEYBUC-MANANGATANG v KOONDROOK-BARHAM
By the time the opening bounce comes around tomorrow afternoon, it will have been 42 days since Koondrook-Barham’s last game of football.
The Raiders had the bye in both the last game before the season shut down and then again last week, and you could almost forgive them for being a little rusty.
Kal Huntly, Colin McVeigh and Harley Burmeister will all return to the Koondrook-Barham line-up, while Jaryd Wishart and Jack Shannon are both some weeks away from resuming.
The Saints put in a much-improved performance against Swan Hill, and showed some positive signs against a potential finalist last week.
And if they can bring the same level of intensity and endeavor around the contest that they showed through the early stages of that game then they could well be a chance to record their first win of the season.
There’s a lot to like about the Tooley-Manang younger brigade, but if they are to produce an upset tomorrow it will have to come from the performances of their more experienced players.
Justin Cooper, Lachie Gleeson and Murray Ogle in the ruck hold the keys to the Saints fortunes; and if they all produce the type of footy that we know they are capable of then the Saints could well be marching in come 5pm.
The Raiders will have other ideas though, and on paper at least should have more than enough weapons to take care of the home side. Phil Smith, Matt O’Dwyer, Cam Arnold and Huntly are all high-quality footballers that on their day are among the best in the competition.
With the level of high-quality players on their list there’s no doubt the Raiders have underperformed so far in 2021, even when you take into account the substantial injury list that they’ve been dealt.
And although finals are out of the question, now is an opportunity for Koondrook-Barham to build towards next season, starting with a win tomorrow against the Saints.
Tip – Koondrook-Barham by 20 points.
TYNTYNDER v KERANG
Tyntynder will be looking to solidify a spot in the top five with a win over second placed Kerang when the two sides meet at the Alan Garden Reserve tomorrow.
The Blues dodged a bullet last weekend when they overran a dogged Mallee Eagles in a very impressive second half performance.
What they will want to avoid however is the slow start that saw them need to come from 38-points down after half time. In what was a very un-Kerang like effort, the Blues were simply pressured into too many errors and poor decisions with the ball.
The Doggies on the other hand have been one of the big improvers throughout the early rounds of the season; and although they find themselves in fifth on the ladder, they are yet to take a big scalp.
Tomorrow presents as perhaps their best chance so far to do just that, with the home side set to welcome a number of key players back into the fray.
Brodie Carroll and Brayden Bigham are likely inclusions, while Elliott Broad will return to his customary role deep in defence. In a further boost to the Tyntynder midfield, assistant coach Tom Gilbert is likely to also come in for his first game since round one.
The one player who Justin Ellis would dearly love to have back at his disposal is Dylan Smillie; but he will have to wait for one more week until the Doggies ruckman has finished serving his two-game suspension.
To rub salt into the wound, Kerang big man Troy Davis is set to take his place in the Blues line-up after missing last weeks game with a tight hamstring.
The bigger issue for Tyntynder however is who they send to Kerang spearhead Bryce Curnow?
The Blues number one forward is both strong overhead and on the lead; and with 34 goals to his name this season is hugely influential to the way his team performs.
Do the Doggies send their number one stopper in Elliott Broad to him, despite him being undersized?
Or do they go with either Patrick or Cayden Crowe?
Whoever it is that gets the job might well be in for a long afternoon, with Kerang seemingly having too many options running through the middle for the Doggies to completely shut down supply.
Tip – Kerang by 20 points.
MALLEE EAGLES v WOORINEN
It’s been 644 days in the making, but finally tomorrow we get the Grand Final rematch we’ve been waiting for, when the Mallee Eagles host the reigning premiers Woorinen.
The Eagles will be desperate to atone for that heartbreaking loss of almost two years ago, when they were beaten in the dying minutes for the second season in a row by just six points.
Fast forward to last weekend and Dean Helmers men couldn’t have been more impressive in another heart-breaking loss, this time to Kerang.
Their attack on the ball was first rate, along with the pressure they applied to their opposition.
The Eagles ran in numbers and quite simply out worked the Blues in the first half. In racing terms though, they’ll be better for the run, as they ran out of legs after the main break and were eventually outran on the scoreboard midway through the last term.
One interested onlooker would have been Woorinen coach Marcus Demaria, who would have observed exactly how well the Eagles set up behind the ball.
Ayden Tessari and Jacob Wade were both influential in the defensive half of the ground, both in defending their goal and also rebounding and setting up play further up the field.
One player who won’t be out there for the Mallee Eagles will be Zak Saad after the small forward accepted a two-week ban earlier this week for striking.
He looks set to be replaced by Mahmoud El-Achkar who missed last week with illness and should be available once again.
For Woorinen, the break in the season couldn’t have come at a better time, with the Tigers missing almost half of their team through injury in the weeks leading up to the season shutdown.
Arnold Kirby, Nick O’Neill and Dom Gallo would have all missed a significant chunk of the season after being injured in their last game, but all have now since recovered and will line-up against the Eagles tomorrow.
Regan Vesty, Todd Heynen and Rob Miller are also expected to return from injury, as will Ben Booth to resume his role in defence. Josh Stone will be another important inclusion for the Tigers, as his class around the ground gives Woorinen extra options both up forward and through the midfield.
With a plethora of options up forward in Doug Palmer, Nick O’Neill and Tom Isma, as well as Arnold Kirby and Lachie Gardner changing in the ruck, Woorinen should in the end be too strong, even for a much-improved Mallee Eagles.
Tip – Woorinen by 10 points.
